Porsche Adds American Connor de Phillippi To Factory Team Roster

First it was California's Patrick Long, plucked from a promising career in open-wheel racing to serve as a racing driver for the Porsche factory. With multiple drivers' and manufacturers' titles for the German marque now on his resume, Long has become one of the brand's biggest success stories.

And when it came time to bolster the ranks of Porsche's junior team, a similar California+open-wheel philosophy has been employed once again. Why mess with a successful formula, after all?

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Enter 19-year-old Connor de Phillippi, already a veteran of Mazda's Road To Indy open-wheel program, who was just named as the second American to represent the legendary marque on the world stage.

De Phillippi, along with Spain's Alex Riberas Bou, won factory seats in the Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland championship for 2013 after an intensive program that evaluated numerous young drivers in a variety of on- and off-track disciplines.

For San Clemente native de Phillippi, who was expected to graduate to the Firestone Indy Lights Series next year, taking this 180-degree career turn towards sports cars wasn't necessarily part of his long-term plan, but faced with the rare opportunity to race as part of the Porsche Junior Team in Europe, it was an obvious choice to make.

It could also see him in one-off guest drives in North America and other international markets.

"It's unbelievable to now be a part of this program," he said. "It's a huge step for me to now race in Europe. But as everyone knows, there is no better school in GT racing than to pit yourself against the top specialists in the Carrera Cup Deutschland. Porsche works driver Patrick Long also took this route. He is one of my biggest role models. I hope to be his teammate one day."

Porscheracing boss Hartmut Kristen is confident the marque has chosen the best twocandidates to groom into professional racers.

"The decision was a very exciting one," he said. "The finalists were all on an impressive level. In order to select the two candidates with the greatest potential, our engineers carefully examined every single lap. Both Alex Riberas Bou and Connor de Phillippi have the talent necessary to be successful in the sports car scene and to follow in the footsteps of (2012 Porsche Junior Team drivers) Klaus Bachler and Michael Christensen. Our current Porsche works drivers have shown that the Carrera Cup is an excellent platform for a professional international career."